Star Fields

Chapter No.25 Destruction

Chapter No.25 Destruction

You never know for sure.

We arrived at the reptilian system and approached the planet in full cloak. It meant that Molly was the only one who could monitor what was out there because she was using high sensitivity photon-capture imaging.

"Oh my God!" Molly exclaimed.

I looked over at her. "What?"

"Something terrible has happened. There's debris all over the place."

I turned to Judy. "Take us out of cloak and go to Red Alert."

Lights dimmed to a dull red and Madison ran out of the elevator and took her seat at the weapons station.

Both Molly and I stared at the image on the main screen in silent shock.

"It looks like there was a major battle here," I finally said.

"I'm not detecting any life signs in any of those wrecked vessels."

"Maneuver us through the debris, Judy. Let's see what the planet looks like."

Judy skillfully moved through the debris without even a scratch.

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "The planet looks scorched!"

"The debris appears to be both reptilian and Scath," Molly said.

"I wonder if anyone survived," I said while staring at the destruction on the planet.

"I have a video request, Jason," Judy said.

"Put it on."

"You are too late," the reptilian said in a gravely voice.

"Yes, I see that."

"They attacked us with a large force. We destroyed all of them but it required great sacrifice."

"Are there any survivors on your planet?"

"Yes, but it will require a long time to recover."

I paused before I said anything. "We found some aged humans on a planet not too far from here. We didn't find any on the planet you suggested."

"The Scath have taken all of them," the reptilian said.

"We have evidence to indicate that the Scath are from the large galaxy we call Andromeda. We will go there and find their home world and pay them back for what they did here."

"We would be grateful for that."

The transmission abruptly ended.

"Not much for idle chat, is he."

"I believe that he knew where the Scath are from," Molly said.

I sighed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. Could you come up with a probable course to put us near where you think that Scath vessel was headed?"

"I'll work out the calculation. I have to account for proper motion between our galaxy and Andromeda and take into consideration that the view we have of Andromeda is 2.5 million years old."

"Take us out of the debris field, Judy."

The view on the main screen quickly changed to that of open space.

"How long will it take to get to Andromeda?" Molly asked.

"I estimate about two weeks."

She shook her head. "Did you ever think that we could travel to another galaxy that quickly?"

"Nope, but thanks to you, we can."

She smiled.

After several minutes of work, Molly devised a heading that would take us to a predicted location for the Scath home system in Andromeda.

"Take us to warp, Judy."

Everything turned blue for a moment before the ship settled into warp. I monitored the antimatter mix temperature and warp number to make sure everything was stable.

"Well, it looks like we're on our way to Andromeda," I said. "When we get there we only have a trillion stars to contend with."

"I'm sure we could locate the Scath home world," Molly said. "If nothing more, we could search for evidence of their vessels and then follow them."

"That might be like finding a needle in a haystack," I retorted.

She gave me a smirk. "As you said, we have all the time we need."

"Seriously, I think that we have a better chance of finding the Scath home world in the stars about half way from the center of the galaxy where the radiation is much less and the disruptions from dust and gas at the edge of the galaxy is not a concern."

"I agree," she said. "The middle distance is obviously the goldilocks section of a spiral galaxy. However, the huge size of Andromeda is going to make it difficult."

"Assuming that the Scath have reasonable warp speed technology, we could assume that we'll find it in the vicinity of where we come out of warp."

"I wonder of the Scath aliens have destroyed many of the intelligent species in Andromeda," Molly mused.

"Let's hope that they were only pissed off at the reptilians, and took out their rage on some of the intelligent species in our galaxy."

She looked over at me with a concerned look. "Are we going to destroy them?"

"I don't think so. We might be able to reason with them."

I realized that I was being optimistic, but under the circumstances it was all I could do. I didn't want to become the police force of the universe. We had no authority to do so and were only one vessel. In the scheme of things we were nothing more than an insignificant speck.

End of Part 2

Part 3 will start with the journey to Andromeda.